What is a family?
by Undeniable Mystique
Summary: Denzel was sick of waiting, sick of hoping that he would come back home.Slight angst. oneshot.


**Family?**

The ten-year-old boy was sitting on the porch of his apartment waiting for the man he called "Dad" to come home. A wave of nostalgia took over him as he remembered that six years ago, he had been doing the same thing, but for a different father, his real one. The boy's name was Denzel, and he lived in the orphanage with a woman named Tifa Lockheart, who had long become his surrogate mother, and a man named Cloud Strife. Denzel kicked at a rock in anger as he thought about the amount of disappointment he had faced by that one man. From the tavern beside him, he could hear a song stream out. _It's been a long, long time waiting. Such a long, long time..._

A tear slid down his face as the song penetrated his heart. He felt as if he would spend his entire life waiting for the man to come home. It hadn't always been this way. There was a time, years ago, when the young blond man he called father had been interested in his life. Denzel remembered when Cloud used to spend time with him as if it was free. How good life had been back then. In those times, Denzel's loss of his real parents seemed a distant memory. He was saddened, but he was also happy that he had found a new family that cherished him.

Denzel's biological mother died giving birth to him and his father was the one to take care of the baby afterwards. Denzel recalled the day of his second birthday. It had been just him and his father. He recalled the warm smile and the soft hugs. Most of all he remembered the way his father always made him feel wanted.

But everything had changed one day when the men had come. The giant men in blue uniforms and masks had taken his father away. Denzel remembered waiting and waiting for his father to return. He had sat on the front porch of his house for hours in the pouring rain waiting. But his father never returned. There had only been policemen who came and took him away. They told the three-year-old boy that his father had gone back to the life stream. "I want to go there too!" He had screamed at the men and demanded to be taken to see his father. But he never saw his father ever again. He now failed to remember even his father's voice.

Denzel spent the next six years of his life in a broken down orphanage with countless other children. A plump woman with no patience for children had owned it. He shuddered at the memory of the woman who had instilled so much fear in him. At the age of eight, Denzel had had enough and decided to run away. However, the universe had other plans in mind and Meteor crashed into Midgar. The orphanage, along with everything else under the plate was destroyed. Denzel managed to escape the debris with a few other children from the orphanage. They became a team, working as jack-of-all-trades, going around the rebuilding city collecting money doing odd jobs for different people. There were six others who had become an unspoken family. They were afraid of losing each other and afraid of being alone. Denzel recalled the moment when he and his brothers and sisters had been found by Tifa Lockheart and Cloud Strife. The two individuals themselves did not have a family to go to, and had taken the children under their care. One by one, the children found new homes with other families, and Denzel went to live with Tifa and Cloud in their apartment above the Seventh Heaven.

Denzel had found the home he ached for only to be disappointed once more by fate. He kicked once more at a rock as he stood up to go inside the bar. He had waited long enough. The man was not coming back anytime soon.

"Denzel?" called a soft voice. The boy turned at the mention of his name and angrily wiped away his tears. Tifa stared at him with concern but did not ask the question tickling at her mind. "Cloud will probably come in late tonight. Why don't you come inside? It's getting dark," she said instead.

Denzel nodded. He cast one last look at the driveway behind him and stepped inside. Tifa followed her adopted son with tears brimming her own eyes. At the foot of the stairs, Denzel turned around.

"I'm done waiting for him to come home, Tifa." With that he spun and climbed the rest of the stairs. "Maybe you should too," he called before disappearing into his bedroom.

Tifa stared at the closed door for the longest time. "Maybe I should too," she whispered before heading back to the bar.

* * *

This is just a little fic that had been sitting in my mind for a while. I just had to get it out.

The song in the beginning is called "Gravity" and it belongs to Coldplay. The characters belong to Square.

Reviews warm my heart. Flames keep me hot. In other words, you're welcome to leave any comment you have on the story. Thanks for reading.


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